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How is discussing Michelle Obama's backside any more demeaning than the more general African American sentiment the media has been rolling out since November 4th that we "finally have a President who looks like me"?
Barack and Michelle Obama, like all other human beings on this planet, don't really look that much like any group of people. At least Ms. Kaplan is interested in a physical resemblance that goes beyond the apparently "appropriate" discussion of the Obamas' skin tones.
As for sexism (or racist sexism), it's no less amusing to hear these charges when leveled in defense of Obama than when the McCain camp tried to claim that people calling his running mate "hot" was a sexist slur. It's not that compliments can't be sexist, of course, but if you lined up the sexist attacks on Hillary Clinton's hair, headbands and failure to be either stunningly beautiful or white-haired and matronly in 1992, I suspect she'd be happy to exchange it all for a few weeks of obsessive talk about how hot she is.
To wonder where the article about "Laura Bush's nipples" was in 2000 is to assume that Laura Bush's style and attractiveness were never mentioned in 2000, which is reasonable insofar as that was nearly a decade ago and Laura Bush always insisted on keeping a low profile.
To wonder where the articles about Barack Obama's ass is a much graver offense, since Obama's phyiscal attractiveness has been paraded about since the beginning of his national career. His shirtless body was splashed over magazine covers to be ogled, examined and judged. "Obama Girl" became an internet star by expressing what is only too obvious: it doesn't hurt to be attractive in America.
It's natural to enjoy the physical beauty of others. The feminists who disdain such enjoyment have the option of making themselves as ugly as possible. But Michelle Obama has chosen to look fantastic. This is plenty of evidence to me that she enjoys her own beauty enough that we need not be guilty in enjoying it ourselves.
